Days Left: Help Stop fracking in the Delaware River Basin

In just a few days, the Delaware River Watershed, which provides drinking water to 15 million people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, could be opened up to the dangers of horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing (also known as fracking).

The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) has proposed a plan to lift a three year ban on fracking and, for the first time, allow this risky new method of gas drilling, that has already contaminated water supplies across the country.

The DRBC is meeting on November 21st to vote on the proposed regulations. Each state's governor, along with President Obama, have a representative on the commission. We need to strongly urge them to reject this dangerous plan.

Across the country, gas companies are working to rapidly expand this dangerous drilling practice. And the DRBC rules would allow nearly 20,000 wells to be drilled and fracked in the Delaware River Basin.

But despite the clear risks, and numerous incidents of drinking water contamination from the toxic chemicals used in fracking, adequate federal regulation of this new drilling method does not exist.

Incredibly, the EPA has been prevented from regulating fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act, by a loophole created by Dick Cheney in his secretive and insider-friendly 2005 energy policy.

The chemicals and released gas can contaminate below ground water supplies in the drilling process -- literally causing tap water to light on fire.

Fracking fluids pose numerous other threats to our water, including the release of inadequately treated wastewater into rivers and streams.4 Often, these chemicals are left to evaporate in large open pools, leaving surrounding waterways vulnerable to contamination during heavy rains and flooding.

Fracking is too dangerous to be allowed in a watershed as important as the Delaware. One accident could contaminate drinking water for millions or cause irreversible damage. The DRBC should reject this dangerous plan on November 21st and instead support a ban on fracking in the Delaware Basin.

This petition will be delivered to President Obama and the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Letter to

Pres. Obama

The proposed DRBC regulations will not protect our water from the dangers of fracking. Please oppose any regulations that would allow drilling in the Delaware River Basin, and instead support a ban on fracking.